EMERGENCY contracts agreed to keep bus routes in West Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse running after the collapse of RH Transport last year will be replaced by new deals in June.

The Witney company stopped operating with just one day’s notice at the start of October, forcing the county council’s transport team to arrange short-term deals for a dozen subsidised bus routes.

These agreements and finding new operators for school buses formerly run by RH cost the council £400,000.

Most of the routes will continue to be run by the operators who took over at short notice, but there will be a number of changes to the Cotswold Line railbus services operating from Charlbury and Kingham railway stations.

Alma Tumilowicz, 61, of Alvescot, complained about the hike in fares when RH Transport took over the number 19 service several years ago. She said she was pleased Stagecoach would continue running their local service until next June.

She said: “I don’t really like big corporations, but in terms of buses they are better because they are more reliable.

“My son said the buses themselves are better as well, because the RH ones used to rattle a lot.”

The biggest shake-up will come on the X8 Kingham railbus, currently run by Stagecoach, where the service will be split into two sections and transferred to new operators, though through tickets will still be available.

The link between Kingham station, Kingham village, Churchill and Chipping Norton will be run from June by Pulham’s Coaches, of Bourton-on-the-Water, in Gloucestershire.

The section of the X8 from Kingham station to the Wychwoods villages will be renumbered X8A and transferred to Abingdon firm Go-Ride, which currently runs the C1 and T1 Charlbury railbus routes, serving the town, Finstock, Leafield and the Wychwoods.

Go-Ride will continue to operate both these routes, with the C1 timetable slightly modified to improve connections with trains at Charlbury station.

The other West Oxfordshire routes where new contracts have been agreed are: X9: Witney-Charlbury-Chipping Norton; X15: Abingdon-Witney; 18: Bampton-Eynsham-Oxford; 19: Carterton-Bampton-Witney; 64: Carterton-Lechlade-Swindon (all operated by Stagecoach) and 243: Combe-Stonesfield-Witney (Pulham’s).

In the Vale of White Horse, new two-year contracts have been agreed for three routes: X47: Ardington-Wantage-Swindon (run by Ridgeways); 63: Southmoor-Appleton-Oxford (Heyfordian) and 67/67A/67B: Wantage-Stanford-Faringdon (Stagecoach).